Climate laws will drain NSW: industry

Renewable energy companies say jobs and technical expertise could flow out of New South Wales if legislation before State Parliament is not amended.

The State Government's renewable energy target legislation does not require projects to be based in NSW.

The Victorian Government has similar legislation but stipulates that the projects must be state-based.

The director of renewable energy company Epuron, Martin Poole, says billions of dollars could be lost to other states.

"I think the way the legislation is currently cast, which is that renewable generators can be built anywhere in the national electricity market, means that jobs and technical expertise and dollars will flow out of NSW to those other states," he said.

"We believe that it makes sense to keep the benefits of this in NSW.

"We're in a situation where we don't have reliable cooling water for our current power stations and we're agonising over the use of massive new coal mines for new generation capacity.

"Why not build clean renewable capacity in NSW now?"

The legislation is expected to be debated when Parliament resumes later this month.